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the Dutch Baby 2002-09-17 As part of the continuing saga that is my recent life, this weekend I started feeling more sick again, so yesterday I stayed home from work and went back to the doctor. I went to the office I hate but I saw a really nice doctor who, if she thought I was crazy from the notes in my file, didn't let on. What I found out is that I was apparently in the first wave of what has turned out to be quite an epidemic, viruswise. My doctor said "everyone and his grandma" has the virus and it is a 2 week virus, which they didn't know when I first went in there. So it's not surprising I still don't feel good. It would've been nice to know at the outset that I would feel bad for at least 2 weeks, but whatareyagonnado. The doctor's advice to me was to go home and get in bed. She said I should drink juice, take a vitamin, lay in bed, and basically just treat my symptoms. This advice coincided with my plan for the rest of the day yesterday, so that's what I did. I'm back at work today, I slept well last night, and I am determined to get better. End of story. I'm wearing my new favorite pants today. They are olive green with flare bottoms and they fit me really well, which is surprising because the waist is below waist level. Not hip huggers, but a lower waist, and normally those pants don't fit right at All. I got lucky when I found these babies. When I bought these pants I also bought the cutest shoes ever, and I can't wait to wear them but I've determined they really need to be worn with pantyhose, and it is still too hot. This weekend I cooked three different things; all fabulous. Saturday night I made meatballs, and let me tell you, I love meatballs. I will make them again soon. Sunday morning I made what the Joy of Cooking calls a Dutch Baby, but Francisco says he's also seen them called German pancakes. I like "Dutch Baby" much better. Let me tell you, the Dutch Baby was the marvel of the weekend. If you've never had a Dutch Baby, you should. They are unbelievably easy to make and So good. Here is the recipe: 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup milk 2 eggs 1/4 cup powdered sugar Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Mix up the above ingredients until smooth. Heat an ovenproof skillet on medium high and melt 4 tbsp [yes--it is a lot] of butter and manipulate the skillet so the butter coats the sides. Pour in the batter and cook without stirring for 2 minutes. Put in the preheated oven and bake about 12 minutes. This thing will puff up like you will not believe. When it is cooked, serve with powdered sugar. This should serve 2 people, especially if eaten with fruit or something else. Because there are 3 of us I doubled the recipe and cooked it instead in a 9x13 inch glass pan (did not double the butter--that is too much butter) and skipped the stove cooking step. Holy crap--the Dutch Baby kicks all other pancakes' asses. I would like to eat another one right this minute. We plan to buy 3 small iron skillets so that we can make individual Dutch Babies; we will maybe buy them before next Sunday so that we can have them for Sunday breakfast. The other good thing I cooked was Greek Lemon soup on Sunday night. This is also extremely easy to make. Recipe: Combine 3 cups chicken stock and 1/2 cup long grain rice in a small saucepan. Bring to boil, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer about 20 minutes or until rice is cooked. Beat together 2 eggs and 1/4 cup lemon juice. Whisk 2 tbsp hot broth into eggs. Turn off heat under broth and rice and slowly stir egg mixture into rice. If done slowly it will become creamy. Put in salt and pepper to taste, and more lemon juice if you want to. Eat. I had the above soup with rosemary sourdough bread. Good dinner. Francisco and Boy had leftover meatballs and pasta, but Francisco also had some soup. Am I bugging you with my recipes? I'm finished now. Yesterday I took a brief hiatus from my bed when Francisco and I went to pick our truck up from the shop. It was just having some maintenence, no big deal. But on the way there we swung by TJ Maxx, intending to buy an area rug. We didn't find a suitable rug but Boy remembered that he really needs some pants so he tried some on in his normal size (12) and they were all incredibly huge. Francisco got him some 10's to try and he selected a pair of pants, but what was funny is he insisted on trying on some pants that were hanging in the 12's, but they were girl pants. I could tell they were girl pants and I told him they were girl pants, but he said I was wrong. I guess when he tried them on they were tight everywhere but where they flared out at the bottom, and it was quite a funny scene. I'm going to take him to Old Navy later this week to get a few more pairs of pants, because he really could use them. We didn't really buy him school clothes yet this year because it's always shorts weather until at least October here, and the child is growing almost visibly. Better to wait and get pants when he needs them than to buy them early and hem them and then they're too short when he goes to wear them. We measured Boy yesterday and he is almost as tall as my sister. When she and her man come out in November for Thanksgiving, I'm betting Boy will have passed her up. I advise her to pack shoes with heels. Otherwise this weekend, did some house work. The painters finished up the exterior on Friday and it looks Great! Francisco also took a truckload of stuff to Goodwill on Saturday, and that helps with the general house betterization project. I got my craft stuff out of the undereaves storage space (stuff I wasn't using and had no plans to use) and sent most of it on the truck to Goodwill. And on Sunday I coerced Francisco into coming to Home Depot with me while I bought 2 large canvas dropcloths and some orange paint. This is what I will use to cover the table and desk in our bedroom, because I saw Genevieve use dropcloth on Trading Spaces and it turned out fine. I will alter the dropcloths to the right size, paint them, and sling them over the table and desk. It will work. It HAS to work. I am tired of trying to think of something better. But I do love getting rid of stuff, let me tell you. I also love doing small home improvement projects, especially lately. It's been raining quite a lot here (which is good) so we're inside much of the time, and it's nice when the place feels cozy. Francisco and I are using one Dutch word lately (pretty much the only one we know): Gezellig. I gather this word is tough to translate to English, but it sort of means cozy/homey/comfortable. Anyone who speaks Dutch want to expound on this or contradict me completely? Because seriously, I don't mind. Anyway, we feel that our house is gezellig and we like it more and more. Which I think is boring to read about, so I'll stop. Recently Francisco and Boy gathered some items from Home Depot and made Boy a sword. They used a dowel, some plastic round part with a hole in it, a drawer pull, and a lot of copper wire. Boy taped the "sword" part with duct tape and they taped the grippy part with grey tape from the sporting goods store, and Boy is in heaven. He is always--no lie--in arms length of the sword, if not actually holding it. He is in love with the sword and the neighbor kids are jealous. With all the time they were putting in on the sword, I thought it was a school project, but no. Just for fun. That Francisco is a good parent, for sure. This weekend we watched two movies we got from Netflix. 1) The Apartment. Old movie with Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon. GOOD movie. 2) The Musketeer. Laughingly bad. Boy loved it. He kept saying, "This is the BEST movie!", while Francisco and I were refraining from openly mocking it. Have you seen it? If no, please don't bother unless you are an 11 year old boy or a 13 year old girl. I think that is the target audience. In closing, I need to say with sadness (and anger, and bitter hatred) that I don't think we're going to be able to adopt Boy after all. Francisco finally caught up with Boy's mom and she admitted she'd been dodging him. She said she didn't want to sign the adoption consent form but that she would contact the lawyer and ask about the counseling she can get at our expense, and maybe she would come to terms with the idea of signing the form. This was on Sunday night, and she promised to call the lawyer Monday and call Francisco afterwards. She didn't. Francisco called her last night and she said she had been too busy. She promised to do it today. Please; she'll never do it. Francisco is extremely angry because he had decided to trust her even though she didn't deserve trusting, and she has let him down. She swears up and down she won't try to regain custody of Boy (which, I don't think she could anyway), but she doesn't want us to adopt him. My first angry reaction is to say fine, and change our phone number to an unlisted one and cut off all contact with her. This is my second, third, and 8th reaction as well, but I think that might be hurtful to Boy, so I just don't know. Can you believe, that bitch actually suggested she come visit us? I don't know why she would say such a thing, because I cannot imagine having her in my house. She hates me, number one, and number two, what would we talk about? We would have to be always around her, to make sure she didn't mentally scar the Boy, and also? I am pretty sure she would steal things. She's been arrested a grillion times for shoplifting--what's to stop her from pilfering stuff from us? Bottom line, she is NOT coming out to visit, and we are so fed up with her that it'll be a Long time before we bring Boy out her direction. She says she is probably moving to Idaho, which would make it easier to visit my parents in Eugene (we wouldn't have to worry about avoiding her), but if she moves to Idaho she will Definitely never sign the adoption consent form. This whole thing is a huge mess and just really aggravating. I am spent. I should really start updating on the weekends because when I don't I always have a hugeass update on Monday, or Tuesday in this case, and it's a lot to write and a lot to read. So I guess I'll try that this next weekend and everything will be better. But if you retain nothing else from this entry, you should remember the recipe for the Dutch Baby. That Dutch Baby is dynamite! Love,
come over some time & see me - 2011-02-25 |
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